A typical media presentation device operates to receive an analog or digital media stream representing media content having video and audio components and to render and output the media content on a user interface including a display screen and an audio speaker. Examples of such devices include, without limitation, televisions, multimedia presentation systems (e.g., having separate or integrated video-presentation and audio-presentation components), and the like.
In many cases, such a media presentation device may be in communication with a receiver, such as a local set top box or other similar device or a remote server, that has access to numerous discrete channels of media content and that can selectively deliver a given such channel's media content to the media presentation device for playout.
By way of example, a television may be communicatively linked with a cable-TV set top box that has access to a set of cable-TV channels, and the set top box may be configured to receive user input selecting a particular channel and to responsively tune to the selected channel and output to the television the video and audio components of the selected channel, and the television may be configured to render those video and audio components for presentation to a user. And as another example, a multimedia presentation system having separate or integrated display and loudspeaker components may be communicatively linked with a computer, set top box, or other receiver that has access to a myriad of television or online streaming media channels, and the receiver may be configured to receive user input selecting a particular channel, to responsively initiate receipt of the selected channel, and to provide a video component of the channel to the display for presentation to a user while providing an audio component of the media content to the loudspeaker for presentation to the user.